scholarly journals Ecological Security Pattern Construction in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region Based on Hotspots of Multiple Ecosystem Services

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 699
Author(s):  
Sheng Wang ◽  
Wenjing Li ◽  
Qing Li ◽  
Jinfeng Wang

The contradiction between urban expansion and ecological protection in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH) is increasingly acute, which has become one of the main problems restricting regional development, and sustainable development of ecosystem services is the key to increasing human well-being. Based on GIS platform and multiple models, this paper analyzes the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of four key ecosystem services (water conservation, soil conservation, habitat quality, and plant net primary productivity) in different ecological regions of BTH in recent 20 years, quantifies the impact of different climate factors and land use change on ecosystem services (ESs), and discusses the primary ecosystem hotspots and ecological security pattern. The results showed that the interannual variation of water conservation (WC) and plant net primary productivity (NPP) increased from 2000 to 2020, while the change of soil conservation (SC) was not obvious, which was mainly controlled by climate factors, WC and SC were more affected by precipitation, and temperature was the key factor affecting NPP. Habitat quality (HQ) presented a significant downward trend; it was mainly attributed to the deterioration of ecological environment caused by accelerated urbanization expansion. According to hotspot analysis, it could be found that WC was the fastest-growing ecosystem service function in BTH, and NPP would become the factor with the greatest contribution to ecological importance in the future. The important protected areas and main ecological sources of ecological security pattern were mainly distributed in Yanshan-Taihang mountain area, which was consistent with the key areas of ecosystem services. In this study, the temporal and spatial differences of ecosystem service in BTH were demonstrated in a more intuitive way and provided scientific guidance for decision makers to formulate effective ecological protection policies in different regions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 5888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangyang Gu ◽  
Xuning Qiao ◽  
Mengjia Xu ◽  
Changxin Zou ◽  
Dong Liu ◽  
...  

Urban expansion poses severe threats to ecosystems. It is therefore important we better understand the impact of different urban expansion level on ecosystems for developing regionally differentiated ecological protection policies. Here, we proposed a conceptual framework to describe the impacts of urbanization on bundles of ecosystem services. Referred to as the concept of land use degree by nighttime light data, we put forward and verified an urban expansion level model. According to this model, study area was divided into a slow increase zone, increase zone, and rapid increase zone. Then, taking Taihu Lake Basin in China as a case, we used Zonal-statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients to reveal the impact in different zones of urban expansion level on multiple ecosystem services: crop production, freshwater supply, aquatic production, net primary productivity, soil conservation, water retention, flood regulation, and forest recreation index. Our results revealed that urban expansion levels significantly impacted all ecosystem services. In either increase zone or rapid increase zone, we found lowered values of crop production, net primary productivity, soil conservation, water retention, and flood regulation, while both aquatic production and forest recreation index increased in all zones from 1990 to 2010. Across the levels of urbanization, urban expansion level was always negatively correlated with provisioning services. This result suggests local governors should improve crop production per unit area and increase the cultivated land area to guarantee food security. In addition, urban expansion level had positive correlations with the trade-offs between flood regulation and forest recreation index, and those among crop production, freshwater supply, and net primary productivity. Therefore, policy-makers should effectively maintain the land use balance among ecological protection, agriculture development, and urban expansion to better coordinate relationships between development and protection. In acquiring quantitative knowledge of how urban expansion level drives ecosystem changes, our findings may help guide future sustainable urban planning with respect to ecosystem services, urban development, and human welfare benefits.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yushuo Zhang ◽  
Xiao Lu ◽  
Boyu Liu ◽  
Dianting Wu

Conflicts between ecological conservation and socio-economic development persisted over many decades in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration (BTH). Ecosystem services were affected drastically by rapid urbanization and ecological restoration programs in the BTH since 2000. This study aims to identify the spatial patterns of the four types of ecosystem services (net primary productivity (NPP), crop production, water retention, and soil conservation) in 2000 and 2010, and to make clear the impacts of urbanization and associated factors on the spatial patterns of ecosystem services. Based on the quantification of ecosystem services, we assessed the spatial patterns and changes, and identified the relationships between the type diversity of ecosystem services and land-use change. We also analyzed the effect of the spatial differentiation of influencing factors on ecosystem services, using the geographical detector model. The results showed that the average value of crop production increased substantially between 2000 and 2010, whereas the net primary productivity decreased significantly, and the water retention and soil conservation decreased slightly. The ecosystem services exhibited a spatial similar to that of influencing factors, and the combination of any two factors strengthened the spatial effect more than a single factor. The geomorphic factors (elevation and slope) were found to control the distribution of NPP, water retention, and soil conservation. The population density was responsible for crop production. We also found that the urbanization rate plays a major indirect role in crop production and water retention when interacting with population density and slope, respectively. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) indirectly influences the spatial distribution of NPP when interacting with geomorphic factors. These findings highlight the need to promote new strategies of land-use management in the BTH. On the one hand, it is necessary to carefully select where new urban land should be located in order to relieve the pressure on ecosystem services in dense urban areas. On the other hand, the maintenance of ecological restoration programs is needed for improving vegetation coverage in the ecological functional zones in the medium and long term.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 992
Author(s):  
Teng Niu ◽  
Jiaxin Yu ◽  
Depeng Yue ◽  
Linzhe Yang ◽  
Xueqing Mao ◽  
...  

“Two ecological barriers and three shelters” (TEBTS), which has the effect of relieving ecological pressure, is the national ecological security pattern in China. Calculating the value of TEBTS ecosystem services, clarifying the synergy/trade-off relationships between ecosystem services, and maximizing the value of regional ecosystem services are of great significance for maintaining the security of the ecological civilization. At present, the research on ecosystem service synergy/trade-off has become the frontier field of ecology and related disciplines at home and abroad, and many research results have been obtained. However, there is still room and significance for continuing research to think about the synergy/trade-off relationship of ecosystems from the perspective of temporal and spatial heterogeneity: clarifying the spatial scope and spatial transmission characteristics of ecosystem service synergy/trade-off; exploring the trend of ecosystem service synergy/trade-off, and simulating the dynamic characteristics of natural factors affecting ecosystem services; and analyzing the characteristics of different spatial attributes that lead to the synergy/trade-off of ecosystem services. In this study, the Songhua River Basin (SRB), where the NFB is located, is used as the research area, the ecosystem services are simulated through the ecosystem assessment model, ecological unit (EU) is constructed as a research carrier, which is used to define the spatial scope of ecosystem services, and the influence of spatial characteristics and attribute characteristics on the change trend of the ecosystem service synergy/trade-off relationship is analyzed. The research found that water retention, soil conservation, and biodiversity did not change much from 2000 to 2015, and these ecosystem services have a greater value in the NFZ. The amount of carbon sequestration increased rapidly from 2010 to 2015. Crop production showed an increasing trend year by year. As the main grain production area, the Songnen Plain provides the main crop production function, which is greatly affected by humans. In the spatial characteristic, water retention, soil sequestration, and biodiversity present a very significant synergistic relationship, which is manifested in the obvious high-value aggregation characteristics in the NFZ, and crop production and the other four types of ecosystem services are in a trade-off relationship. At the time scale, the four types of ecosystem services, including water retention, soil conservation, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration, are synergistic, and crop production and water retention are synergistic. The vegetation types exhibiting a synergy/trade-off relationship are mainly broad-leaved forests, and the soil types are mainly luvisols and phaeozems. These EUs are mainly distributed in the NFZ and have spatial topological characteristics: the area and circumference of these EUs are smaller, the radius of gyration is also significantly smaller than that of other EUs, and the shape is more regular. By focusing on the spatial aggregation characteristics and changing trends of the ecosystem service synergy/trade-off and clarifying the influencing factors of the ecosystem service synergy/trade-off, the ecosystem services can be integrated, and the ecosystem can be optimized. Thus, the value of regional ecosystem services can be maximized, and a certain data foundation and theoretical support can be provided for major projects, such as ecological restoration and ecological environment governance, which is of great significance for improving the pattern of ecological security.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1375
Author(s):  
Liang-Jie Wang ◽  
Shuai Ma ◽  
Jiang Jiang ◽  
Yu-Guo Zhao ◽  
Jin-Chi Zhang

Understanding the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of ecosystem services (ESs) and their drivers in mountainous areas is important for sustainable ecosystem management. However, the effective construction of landscape heterogeneous units (LHUs) to reflect the spatial characteristics of ESs remains to be studied. The southern hill and mountain belt (SHMB) is a typical mountainous region in China, with undulating terrain and obvious spatial heterogeneity of ESs, and was selected as the study area. In this study, we used the fuzzy k-means (FKM) algorithm to establish LHUs. Three major ESs (water yield, net primary productivity (NPP), and soil conservation) in 2000 and 2015 were quantified using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and Carnegie Ames-Stanford approach (CASA) model. Then, we explored the spatial variation in ESs along terrain gradients and LHUs. Correlation analysis was used to analyze the driving factors of ESs in each terrain region and LHU. The results showed that altitude and terrain niche increased along LHUs. Water yield and soil conservation increased from 696.86 mm and 3920.19 t/km2 to 1061.12 mm and 5117.90 t/km2, respectively, while NPP decreased from 666.95 gC/m2 to 648.86 gC/m2. The ESs in different LHUs differed greatly. ESs increased first and then decreased along LHUs in 2000. In 2015, water yield decreased along LHUs, while NPP and soil conservation showed a fluctuating trend. Water yield was mainly affected by precipitation, temperature and NDVI were the main drivers of NPP, and soil conservation was greatly affected by precipitation and slope. The driving factors of the same ES were different in different terrain areas and LHUs. The variation and driving factors of ESs in LHUs were similar to some terrain gradients. To some extent, LHUs can represent multiple terrain features. This study can provide important support for mountain ecosystem zoning management and decision-making.


Author(s):  
Rong Guo ◽  
Tong Wu ◽  
Mengran Liu ◽  
Mengshi Huang ◽  
Luigi Stendardo ◽  
...  

Urban agglomerations have become a new geographical unit in China, breaking the administrative fortresses between cities, which means that the population and economic activities between cities will become more intensive in the future. Constructing and optimizing the ecological security pattern of urban agglomerations is important for promoting harmonious social-economic development and ecological protection. Using the Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration as a case study, we have identified ecological sources based on the evaluation of ecosystem functions. Based on the resistance surface modified by nighttime light (NTL) data, the potential ecological corridors were identified using the least-cost path method, and key ecological corridors were extracted using the gravity model. By combining 15 ecological sources, 119 corridors, 3 buffer zones, and 77 ecological nodes, the ecological security pattern (ESP) was constructed. The main land-use types composed of ecological sources and corridors are forest land, cultivated land, grassland, and water areas. Some ecological sources are occupied by construction, while unused land has the potential for ecological development. The ecological corridors in the central region are distributed circularly and extend to southeast side in the form of tree branches with the Songhua River as the central axis. Finally, this study proposes an optimizing pattern with "four belts, four zones, one axis, nine corridors, ten clusters and multi-centers" to provide decision makers with spatial strategies with respect to the conflicts between urban development and ecological protection during rapid urbanization.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ouyang ◽  
Wang ◽  
Zhu

Coordinating ecosystem service supply and demand equilibrium and utilizing machine learning to dynamically construct an ecological security pattern (ESP) can help better understand the impact of urban development on ecological processes, which can be used as a theoretical reference in coupling economic growth and environmental protection. Here, the ESP of the Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan urban agglomeration was constructed, which made use of the Bayesian network model to dynamically identify the ecological sources. The ecological corridor and ecological strategy points were identified using the minimum cumulative resistance model and circuit theory. The ESP was constructed by combining seven ecological sources, “two horizontal and three vertical” ecological corridors, and 37 ecological strategy points. Our results found spatial decoupling between the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ES) and the degradation in areas with high demand for ES. The ecological sources and ecological corridors of the urban agglomeration were mainly situated in forestlands and water areas. The terrestrial ecological corridor was distributed along the outer periphery of the urban agglomeration, while the aquatic ecological corridor ran from north to south throughout the entire region. The ecological strategic points were mainly concentrated along the boundaries of the built-up area and the intersection between construction land and ecological land. Finally, the ecological sources were found primarily on existing ecological protection zones, which supports the usefulness of machine learning in predicting ecological sources and may provide new insights in developing urban ESP.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiantian Chen ◽  
Li Peng ◽  
Qiang Wang

Abstract The Grain to Green Program (GTGP), as a policy tool for advancing ecological progress, has been operating for 20 years and has played an important role in improving ecosystem service values. However, there are few studies on the trade-off/synergy changes in ecosystem services during the implementation of the GTGP and how to select the optimal scheme for regional ecological security based on the trade-off relationship. Thus, we took the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration (CCUA) in southwestern China as the study area; we used multisource data and the corresponding models and methods to estimate the regional food production, carbon sequestration, water yield, soil conservation and habitat quality services. Then, we clarified the trade-off/synergy relationships among ecosystem services from 2000 to 2015 by spatial analysis and statistical methods and evaluated the influential mechanism of the GTGP on trade-offs between ecosystem services. Finally, different risk scenarios were constructed by the ordered weighted average algorithm (OWA), and the regional ecological security pattern was simulated under the principle of the best protection efficiency and the highest trade-off degree. We found that (1) the trade-offs/synergies of regional ecosystem services changed significantly from 2000 to 2015. Among them, food production, water yield and soil conservation have always had trade-off relationships, while carbon sequestration, soil conservation and habitat quality have all had synergistic relationships. The relationships between carbon sequestration and water yield and food production changed from non-correlated to trade-off/synergistic, and the relationship between habitat quality and food production and water yield was not obvious. (2) Except for carbon sequestration service, the trade-off intensity between other ecosystem services decreased, indicating that the change trend of ecosystem services in the same direction was obvious. (3) The GTGP has been an important factor affecting the trade-off intensity of regional ecosystem services. On the one hand, it has strengthened the synergistic relationships among carbon sequestration, soil conservation and habitat quality; on the other hand, it has increased the constraints of water resources on soil conservation and vegetation restoration. (4) The decision risk coefficient α = 1.6 was the most suitable scenario, the total amount of regional ecosystem services was high, and the allocation was balanced under this scenario. The ecological security area corresponding to this scenario was also the area with high carbon sequestration and habitat quality services. The purpose of this study was to provide a scientific reference for the precise implementation of the GTGP.


2013 ◽  
Vol 864-867 ◽  
pp. 1111-1115
Author(s):  
Dan Dan Yu ◽  
Shi Jie Han

Based on the published studies and the data from multiple-year consecutive observation of the Long Term Ecological Research Station affiliated to the Chinese Forest Ecosystem Research Network (CFERN), the ecosystem services of carbon fixation and oxygen release, water conservation, soil conservation and nutrient accumulation of the Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve (CMNR), PR China, from 1985 to 1997 were evaluated using the Specifications for Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Services in China (LY/T17212008) promulgated by State Forestry Administration of China. The results show that the loss of ecosystem service value in CMNR was 59.76 million dollar under the policy intervention. These ecosystem services show trade-off/synergistic relationship. Carbon fixation and oxygen release, water conservation and soil conservation decreased greatly, while nutrient accumulation slightly increased from 1985 to 1997. This research could provide a scientific basis for policy-making in sustainable development of natural reserves.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1113
Author(s):  
Shahid Naeem ◽  
Yongqiang Zhang ◽  
Jing Tian ◽  
Faisal Mueen Qamer ◽  
Aamir Latif ◽  
...  

Accurate assessment of vegetation dynamics provides important information for ecosystem management. Anthropogenic activities and climate variations are the major factors that primarily influence vegetation ecosystems. This study investigates the spatiotemporal impacts of climate factors and human activities on vegetation productivity changes in China from 1985 to 2015. Actual net primary productivity (ANPP) is used to reflect vegetation dynamics quantitatively. Climate-induced potential net primary productivity (PNPP) is used as an indicator of climate change, whereas the difference between PNPP and ANPP is considered as an indicator of human activities (HNPP). Overall, 91% of the total vegetation cover area shows declining trends for net primary productivity (NPP), while only 9% shows increasing trends before 2000 (base period). However, after 2000 (restoration period), 78.7% of the total vegetation cover area shows increasing trends, whereas 21.3% of the area shows decreasing trends. Moreover, during the base period, the quantitative contribution of climate change to NPP restoration is 0.21 grams carbon per meter square per year (gC m−2 yr−1) and to degradation is 2.41 gC m−2 yr−1, while during the restoration period, climate change contributes 0.56 and 0.29 gC m−2 yr−1 to NPP restoration and degradation, respectively. Human activities contribute 0.36 and 0.72 gC m−2 yr−1 during the base period, and 0.63 and 0.31 gC m−2 yr−1 during the restoration period to NPP restoration and degradation, respectively. The combined effects of climate and human activities restore 0.65 and 1.11 gC m−2 yr−1, and degrade 2.01 and 0.67 gC m−2 yr−1 during the base and restoration periods, respectively. Climate factors affect vegetation cover more than human activities, while precipitation is found to be more sensitive to NPP change than temperature. Unlike the base period, NPP per unit area increases with an increase in the human footprint pressure during the restoration period. Grassland has more variability than other vegetation classes, and the grassland changes are mainly observed in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia regions. The results may help policy-makers by providing necessary guidelines for the management of forest, grassland, and agricultural activities.


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